The waste of the body is proportionate to the quantity of oxygen taken into the system by the respiration.  The waste of a man who breathes quickly is greater than that of one who breathes slowly.  While tranquillity of mind produces slow breathing, and causes the retardation of the bodily waste, the tranquil respiration has a tendency to produce calmness of mind.  The Yogis attain to Nirvana by suspending or holding the breath.  The Vedantists obtain moksha, or emancipation of the soul, by holding the mind (mental abstraction).  Thus Om is the process of separating the soul from the body.  It is the product of the gasping breath which precedes the dissolution of our body.  The ancient Hindus utilized the gasping breath of the dying man by discovering the syllable Om.

The syllable Om protects man from premature decay and death, preserves him from worldly temptations, and saves him from re-birth.  It causes the union of the human soul to the supreme soul.  Om has the property of shortening the length of respiration.

Siva is made to say in a work on “Sharodaya” (an excellent treatise on respiration) that the normal length of the expiration is 9 inches.  During meals and speaking the length of the expiration becomes 13.5 inches.  In ordinary walking the expiration is lengthened to 18 inches.  Running lengthens the expiration to 25.5 inches.

In sexual intercourse the extent of respiration becomes 48.75 inches.  During sleep the respiration becomes 75 inches long.  As sleep causes a great waste of the body and invites disease, premature decay and death, the Yogi tries to abstain from it.  He lives upon the following dietary:—­rice, 6 ounces troy; milk, 12 ounces troy.  He consumes daily:  carbon, 156.2 grains; nitrogen, 63.8 grains.

Under this diet he is ever watchful, and spends his time in the contemplation of Om.  From the small quantity of nitrogen contained in his diet he is free from anger.  The Yogi next subdues his carnal desire or sexual appetite.  He diminishes day by day his food until it reaches the minimum quantity on which existence is maintained.  He passes his life in prayer and meditation.  He seeks retirement.  He lives in his little cell; his couch is the skin of tiger or stag; he regards gold, silver, and all precious stones as rubbish.  He abstains from flesh, fish, and wine.  He never touches salt, and lives entirely on fruits and roots.  I saw a female mendicant who lived upon a seer of potatoes and a small quantity of tamarind pulp daily.  This woman reduced herself to a skeleton.  She led a pure, chaste life, and spent her time in the mental recitation of Om.  One seer of potatoes contains 3,600 grains of solid residue, which is exactly 7 1/2 ounces troy.

The solid residue of one seer of potatoes consists of the following ultimate ingredients:—­

Carbon .............. 1587.6 grains
Hydrogen ............  208.8    "
Nitrogen .............  43.2    "
Oxygen .............. 1580.4    "
Salts .................180.0    "
--------
3600.0    "

I saw a Brahman (Brahmachari) who consumed daily one seer of milk, and took no other food.